Sin and Virtue
by Annamae Tezuka
Summary: The Seven Deadly Sins aren't the only Homunculi around. A woman with some knowledge of Dante has unleashed the natural enemies of the Sins, the Seven Contrary Virtues, setting the stage for chaos.
1. Chapter 1

The old man took off his glasses, cleaned them thoroughly, and looked again. It was still there: an odd light shining off of the mountain. The cragged slope and sharply pointed peaks were silhouetted in a white light; a phenomenon that would have not seemed amazing, had it not been the night of a new moon. Nor were there any cities nearby; even in sunlight, from the top of the behemoth mountain, no human habitation could be seen except for the old man and his small house. Yet, despite the mounds of scientific reasoning against it, the light still existed, shining alluringly and ominously. Chills shook the man; he'd seen many things in his lifetime, and yet this was something completely new and foreign to him. Quietly he returned to the dark safety of his house, fear and arthritis teaming up to make him appear like a malfunctioning robot trying to walk.

In a small-mouthed but cavernous cave hidden in the mountain was the source of the light. Within the cavern was a gruesome yet beautiful creature: an ethereal body, from which seven heads sprouted. From deep within the creature, a voice that was as clear as a bell yet as penetrating as a sword through a wall of air seemed to emanate, as though it did not need to use any of the seven heads to capacitate speaking.

"I am the Seven," the creature called, proceeding to name itself. "Faith, Hope, Charity, Forittude, Justice, Temeprance, and Prudence." As each name was called, the respective head was reflexively bobbed.

Whatever response the seven-headed creature had apparently expected did not come; the voice issued forth again, asking a commanding question.

"Where are the White of the Damned?"

As it said the last four words, the creature's body glowed brightly, a beacon that rent the cool night. The question was repeated again, this time receiving an answer.

Three white-clad figures entered the cave, basking for a moment in the creature's glow. The first was a tall, young woman, wearing a long-sleeved turtleneck blouse and a knee-length skirt. Paired off with her pale blonde hair and leaf-green eyes, she possessed a quality that seemed nearly angelic. Behind her, a red-haired, clean-shaven blue-eyed man, dressed in white clothes that bordered on ragged, quietly walked in, seeming to give superiority and reverence to everything, including the rocks on the ground. Trotting in after him was an albino girl that, although she seemed to be in her teens, also seemed to have never eaten a bite of food her entire life; her small halter dress seemed as baggy as a deflated hot air balloon over her bony frame.

"Thank you for coming early, Chastity, Humility, Abstinence," the seven-headed creature, addressing them in the order of their arrival, said, glancing with one head to the cave's entrance. "Will the others come?"

"Yes, Holy One," the three murmured in unison.

The moon moved, a slight twinge imperceptible to most, but which was made apparent through a dramatic flooding of light in the cavern. Midnight, the hour bound to frightening superstitions and eerie darkness; a notorious hour, and the very one that the Holy One had chosen as the allotted time for a meeting in its cave.

With the hour of midnight being reached, a figure promptly appeared at the entrance. Her hair, a soft mix of a mousy brown and the silvering gray of age, was tied back in a bun. A long, modest, practical white dress covered her stern frame, complimented by a pair of slim-framed horn-rimmed glasses, through which stone gray eyes peered.

"Diligence, on time, as always," the Holy One greeted her.

"I do my best to keep my appointments," Diligence replied.

Not soon after Diligence's amazingly prompt arrival, a tall, lean woman wearing a white, businesslike jacket, knee-length skirt, and high-heeled shoes. Her jet black hair was cut chin-length, framing her pale face and granny smith apple green eyes.

"Liberality, I am sure your tardiness is due to some sort of charitable event again?" the Holy One asked rhetorically; it seemed as though it already knew the answer.

There were now five white-clad figures standing before the Holy One, as they had referred to this creature as. Chastity snorted. "I see that two of us are lazy, forgetful, or otherwise. Though we should have patience, as Patience herself is coming, of course…" her voice trailed off as the time to mention the other one came.

"I'm sorry I'm late," a voice called from the cave's mouth.

"Patience, late is better than never, come in," Humility invited.

Patience was a girl, maybe about ten years old, who wore white capris, tank top, and sandals. Her brown hair was tied into two pigtails with white ribbons. "I see ihe/i still isn't here? I'd almost be glad for that."

"Now, now, Patience, don't be rude," Chastity chided the girl.

"Yes, although I must admit, you are right," Liberality added.

"But it's not right that he's one of us! He's just like his opposite, just like his black twin!" Patience said, being impatient for one of the few times in her life.

"It's not nice to say things like that, no matter how you feel about it, it can be hurtful to others," Humility said modestly.

"Stop arguing!" the seven-headed Holy One commanded, silencing the discussion at once. "It seems high time for this meeting to start, so as late as the last of us is, we must begin. I'll start by removing this hideous disguise." The seven-headed Holy One started to disintegrate, fading away into nothingness. In its place was a woman, who was tall, with long, blonde hair, and soft brown eyes. She was wearing a blue cotton dress with matching high heels, and, though she seemed young, carried herself as an old and wise woman should. "All right, I've heard of the Philosopher's Stone incidents starting to happen again. No doubt it has to do with the Black Homunculi and itheir/i master. Now, will you let them be human, while you stay behind as the only ones labeled as 'damned'?"

"No!" the six standing before the woman chorused.

"All right then! As the White Homunculi, I bid you to stop the 'Black Homunculi' from achieving their goal, and to get the Philosopher's Stone for ourselves instead! Do you understand?"

"Yes!" the six chorused.

The woman seemed about ready to conclude her strange meeting, but it was interrupted by a voice shouting "Wait!"

Tension seemed to skyrocket to insane levels as the newcomer announced themselves. At the mouth of the cave, a shadow that resembled a palm tree spread itself grandly. Those who knew of the Seven Deadly Sins homunculi would have been filled with a large amount of dread, being that this was no other than the most vicious of them all, Envy. However, this was more of the White Envy, the White Homunculus opposite of him.

"Ah, Kindness, how…kind of you to join us," the woman said, masking all sarcasm, impatience, and bitterness perfectly.

"Sorry, sorry!" Kindness replied, doing what seemed to be some kind of dance as he spoke, "I was trying to find my formal white outfit," he said, gesturing to what was an even more outrageous, white version of Envy's ensemble: a white tube top, pleated miniskirt, furry white boots, and lace gloves, and, to keep his hair back, a white headband.

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!" Patience exploded; the one thing she did not have patience with was Kindness. She ignored her fellow homunculi's trying to stop her, and went on. "You're his twin, with the same ability and everything; that excuse can't work with you!"

Kindness stared at her, looking surprised. "Ah, yes, of course, you're right," he said, controlling the anger welling up inside of him.

"Kindness," the woman said shortly.

"Yeah, what?" Kindness returned.

"You missed the mission. You're to go against the Black Homunculi. Feel free to deal with Envy however you like."

Contrary to a virtue's noble nature, Kindness's slightly agape mouth turned into a wide, malicious grin. "You can count on that!" he said, a new, ominous note in his voice.

"Good. Virtues, you are dismissed."

Seven white flashes were all that told of the Seven Contrary Virtues, opposites to the Seven Deadly Sins, off on their mission.

"Dante, I will see you soon enough," the woman said, a hateful smile on her lips.


	2. Chapter 2

In the Fuhrer's office, the seven deadly sin Homunculi were having a discussion

In the Fuhrer's office, the seven deadly sin Homunculi were having a discussion. Their current issue was that Dante had warned Pride of some kind of major disturbance to their plans arising. Having not yet been told the nature of this disturbance, the group was trying to figure out what the possible problems were, and the possible solutions.

"Someone could have figured out what we're doing, and told the public," Lust suggested.

"Unless it reached Colonel Mustang and company or anyone else who actually knows about this, that wouldn't be too problematic, but then said party is annoyingly reputable for being told of this." Pride replied.

"What would we do about this?" Sloth asked, looking up momentarily from her writing a record of the conversation.

"Please tell me it means I can have a field day on some humans," Envy begged, getting up from his seat on the windowsill to get a glass of water. He had to dodge past Gluttony, who was eating the snack trays clean of their cargo, followed by eating the actual metal platters.

"It may come to that, but don't get your hopes up," Pride told him, "It could be something else. Any other suggestions?"

"Ask Dante what we're dealing with?" asked Wrath, stating the obvious solution with the manner of a child.

Sloth looked over at him. "We can't, she's not in town, and she may not even know much more than us about the issue."

"All right, any other suggestions," Pride started, "as to what the problem might be?"

"Did her delivery of the message indicate anything?" Envy said, taking a gulp of water.

"She did seem a little agitated," Pride said, deciding to try and avoid an explosion from the most vicious of the seven, and not completing his thought.

It seemed that Sloth and Lust had caught on to what Pride was implying; Envy, mercifully, had not. However, Greed, whom had been trying to steal the spotlight by constantly complaining and asking why he was there in the first place, could not allow such a naïve peace in his fellow Homunculus to persist. Cool as a cucumber, he made himself the lighted match held to the volatile bottle of flammable substances that was Envy. "So you're saying the problem might be," he paused for effect, then, for even more effect, stressed the last word, "_Hohenheim_?"

In an instant, Greed's wish was granted. Envy was halfway through the process of filling his mouth and contracting the muscles in his mouth and throat to swallow it when Pride's thought was finished; he promptly choked and spewed the water straight back out; ironically, the backwash was spewed all over Greed. "That has to be it!" he roared, his rage meter having gone from neutral to insane levels in nanoseconds. "That bastard has got to be the source of the problem!"

"You _had_ to do it, Greed," Lust hissed at the now backwash-covered, totally disgusted Greed. "You _had_ to provoke Envy, and you _had_ to do so with the H-Bomb."

"And of course," Greed snapped back, mimicking Lust, "he _had_ to spit all over me! He _had_ to ruin my fur and leather jacket!"

"Lust, while I appreciate the reprimanding of this phenomenal idiot," Sloth said, "the appreciation of helping us stop Envy's rampage would be better." Lust nodded. Almost as if they were one person, the two females of the Homunculi turned on Greed, saying "Stop whining, and help out. This is your fault, after all."

The attempt to restrain Envy was not going well. He was insistent on going and finding Hohenheim at that moment, and killing him. Pride was trying desperately to reason with him; reminding him that Hohenheim may not be anywhere nearby, or even remotely related to this. Envy countered by screaming that the bastard was always related with everything. He was trying to escape from the office and go kill as many humans as he could, opening a path of corpses to Hohenheim, but Wrath was holding him back. Whenever he whacked the younger Homunculus away, and made a break for the door, Wrath would simply transmute his leg into the floor and restrain Envy that way. In the moments between that failing and Wrath's next attempt, Lust's fingernails blocked the door, with walls of water blocking the windows. For two daunting hours this went on, until finally Envy had seemed to have calmed down a little; only then did Pride consent to him taking a walk around Central.

- - - - - - - -

"What the hell was that?" Ed asked in shock, as Central Headquarters seemed to shake, and distant screams of anger could be heard. He was sitting in the Colonel's office, having just given him his report from his latest mission.

"There was a firing squad training session today. That's most likely Lieutenant Hawkeye's reprimanding someone," the Colonel replied calmly, though the prospect seemed to make him quiver slightly.

"It doesn't sound much like the Lieutenant, but it sounds far away, so who knows," Ed said thoughtfully.

"In any case," the Colonel cleared his throat, changing the subject back to Ed's mission, "I have to say that there are no new leads that have come up in the week that you were away. Go and enjoy the free time with your brother, will you?"

Ed nodded, still concentrating on the rumbles and screams, which were starting to die down. After he was pretty sure nothing else would happen, he thanked the Colonel for his kindness and left.

Ed and Al walked down a quieter street of Central, taking a shortcut to one of Ed's favorite restaurants. Ed was silent, deep in thought about the screams at headquarters; Al, on the other hand, was a little jumpy at being in what was basically an eerily silent alley, and so he was desperately trying to start a conversation. Busy stuttering over his words, he nearly knocked his elder brother, who had stopped short, and was staring at something in the alleyway.

"Nii-san, what is it—" Al started to ask, before he, too, saw it. In front of them, there was a silhouette of someone walking from a door in the alley. However, the fact that there was someone on the street wasn't the strange part. The strange thing was that the silhouette looked like a short palm tree.

"Nii-san, we should go!" Al squeaked, tugging on his brother's jacket. Ed didn't answer; he just stared at the silhouette for a moment. When he turned around, Al could see a clear tone of hatred on his face. Knowing that his brother was about two seconds away from attacking who seemed to be Envy, he hurriedly led the way out of the alley.

Seeing Ed and Al leaving, the silhouetted person cocked their head. In a stream of light, his face was clearly seen as he said "I've been spotted. I'll go follow them, whoever they were," to someone inside the door. As he turned to leave, six more silhouettes followed him out. "We're coming with you to make sure that you don't get yourself into anything," one said.

- - - - - - - - - -

Ed and Al kept on running; they knew that they were being pursued. "Just like Envy to chase us like this," Ed snarled, clenching his fists as he ran.

"But Nii-san, he didn't attack us in the alley. Now that we're in public, we'd be harder to attack, right? So why did he wait?" Al asked.

"How the hell should I know? Better yet, why would I even care?" Ed snapped, obviously in a bad mood. Al flinched at his harsh tone, and, noticing, he softened his tone, saying "Sorry, I just got a little annoyed that this has to happen on a day off."

"Hold it!" a voice bellowed, cutting into the conversation. Even though they were relatively sure it would be smarter to keep going, they also knew that if they didn't want to get killed, it would be better to stop. Reluctantly, they slowed down, and were directed to go to a small garden in a quieter area of Central's most famous park. Behind some bushes, the lowest of which just managed to hide most of Ed, so that all you could see was a blonde antenna, the two brothers were directed to wait. Above them, on the third-highest bush, a rustle caused them to look up and face their pursuer.

Expecting the cruel face and black, feminine clothing to greet them, the pair was surprised when their usual picture of Envy appeared, only with a few disturbing changes. In place of the cold, sadistic, insane yet angry smirk was a curious, almost naïve expression. The maroon headband had been replaced with a pink one, moved up to hold back the palm tree hair, just like a small girl would do. The clothing was just as skimpy, if not more so than, Envy's normal ensemble: a hot pink tube top and miniskirt, sporty sandals (Adidas sandals) with pink ankle-high socks, and pink suede gloves. Ed's mouth was open to say 'what do you want, Envy?', but now it stopped. This person, no matter how Envy-like he was, certainly was not the same. Instead, Ed asked "Who are you?" "Me? I'm so glad you asked that, my little friend." Paying no attention to the resulting growl coming from an Ed that was no ready to combust at any moment, the Envy-like person put one hand to his heart and the other in the air, as though singing a high note in an opera. "I am—"

- - - - - - - - - -

Envy stamped down the streets of Central. When he had left the Fuhrer's office, he had been so angry that he hadn't bothered to shift into any disguises. Now, ten minutes later, his green palm tree locks still flowed in the breeze created by his brisk pace, his strange clothes were attracting many a stare, and the other six Homunculi were several hundred feet behind him; keeping an eye on him and keeping their distance at the same time. Envy's anger from Greed's comment had not subsided in the least, and he was about ready to kill the first person he saw fit. Luckily for the ignorant population of Central City, nobody seemed yet to be considered fit for killing at that moment. He strode quite quickly, and soon noticed that his fellow Homunculi were not following him. That was good; their presence was only pissing him off even more. Deciding to lose them as much as possible, and to find some way to attract some human targets to kill, he stopped fuming, so that his anger could be bottled up and put to good use later, and sauntered into Central's park.

Behind Envy, the other six black-clad Homunculi were walking in the shadows, trying to avoid drawing any attention. Wrath noticed something on the rooftops, and they changed course for a moment to investigate. Atop the flat roofs, they were surprised to find their six Virtue counterparts, the "white homunculi", who seemed equally surprised at finding them. A moment of tension ensued, and then halting words exchanged.

"Chastity," Lust hissed.

"Lust," Chastity hissed straight back.

"Wrath," Patience sighed, while Wrath grumbled "Patience" at about the same time.

"Pride," Humility said, bowing slightly despite the fact that he was addressing his enemy.

"Humility," Pride said, barely acknowledging his opposite.

"Liberality, great," Greed groaned.

"Likewise, Greed," Liberality snapped.

"Gluttony, as fat as ever," Abstinence said, wincing.

"Abstinence…skinny…like a chicken bone," Gluttony said, sucking his thumb.

"Diligence, I presume?" Sloth said, the only one who did not know her counterpart personally yet.

"You must be Sloth then?" Diligence replied; both women had coldness in their voices, even though they were just meeting. This coldness was chilling the rooftop; anyone who happened to be there and did not know that the coldness came from the conflict of the Cardinal Sins and their Contrary Virtues would swear that a freak ice storm was coming.

"What are you doing here?" Lust demanded, glaring at everyone, especially Chastity.

"We were about to ask you the same thing," Diligence snarled back.

"Do you want a fight?" Wrath growled, tensing in case the answer was 'yes'.

"No, we're just following that _idiot_ of our group!" Abstinence exploded. Her words brought a sudden, almost fearful silence sweeping over the black-clad Homunculi.

"You mean…Kindness? He's…he's out…on…the streets? Of Central?" Greed stammered, his eyes wide with what was evidently fear.

"What about it?" Liberality snarled, "You should know by now an ambush would be pointless."

"That's not it…if you haven't notice, Envy, too, is not here on the rooftops," Sloth said, her face pale. Sloth's enemies stared at her for a moment, suddenly paling as comprehension dawned on them.

"So what you're saying," Patience started,

"Is that Envy and Kindness are both out on the streets?" Wrath finished.

"Please tell me Envy wasn't walking down _that _street," Chastity groaned, pointing down to the main road below them.

"Please tell me Kindness wasn't there," Lust replied.

"This isn't good. If those two meet, and there's nobody there with even a chance to keep a check on them, namely us, we'll have a serious problem," Pride rushed, not even bothering to try and hide the cold sweat on his body.

"I don't mean to make a truce with you, but we need to make sure they don't come into contact. Let's go!" Diligence yelled. Nodding, twelve blurs, six white and six black, ran towards the direction Envy had been headed, with an obvious tone of urgency and a small thought of hope that it was not too late.


	3. Chapter 3

"What are you doing here

"What are you doing here?" Lust demanded, glaring at everyone, especially Chastity.

"We were about to ask you the same thing," Diligence snarled back.

"Do you want a fight?" Wrath growled, tensing in case the answer was 'yes'.

"No, we're just following that _idiot_ of our group!" Abstinence exploded. Her words brought a sudden, almost fearful silence sweeping over the black-clad Homunculi.

"You mean…Kindness? He's…he's out…on…the streets? Of Central?" Greed stammered, his eyes wide with what was evidently fear.

"What about it?" Liberality snarled, "You should know by now an ambush would be pointless."

"That's not it…if you haven't notice, Envy, too, is not here on the rooftops," Sloth said, her face pale. Sloth's enemies stared at her for a moment, suddenly paling as comprehension dawned on them.

"So what you're saying," Patience started,

"Is that Envy and Kindness are both out on the streets?" Wrath finished.

"Please tell me Envy wasn't walking down _that_ street," Chastity groaned, pointing down to the main road below them.

"Please tell me Kindness wasn't there," Lust replied.

"This isn't good. If those two meet, and there's nobody there with even a chance to keep a check on them, namely us, we'll have a serious problem," Pride rushed, not even bothering to try and hide the cold sweat on his body.

"I don't mean to make a truce with you, but we need to make sure they don't come into contact. Let's go!" Diligence yelled. Nodding, twelve blurs, six white and six black, ran towards the direction Envy had been headed, with an obvious tone of urgency and a small thought of hope that it was not too late.

- - - - - -

Envy was storming halfway through the park, his anger being amplified by the fact that anything that he could kick seemed to be out of his way—benches, garbage pails, shrubs, people, all of them seemed to be out of his beeline towards wherever it was he was going. This was keeping him angry; otherwise, even his explosive temper would have cooled down by now.

A voice drifting from a part of the park not so far from Envy's position caught his attention. The voice seemed angry, but, more than that, it seemed familiar. Greed had put Hohenheim at the front of his mind, which made recognizing the voice come quicker than it would have if he hadn't been thinking along those lines. That voice definitely belonged to none other but the one and only Edward Elric, whose body was barely big enough to accommodate such a loud tone. What was more, he could hear the metallic thunder of footsteps, moving in such a way that it could only mean that he and his brother were running. His curiosity piqued, and his temper reasoning that bothering the pipsqueak would make him feel better, he made a ninety-degree left turn and went along that path, growing closer to the voice.

Envy was sure he was now well within twenty feet of his target, Ed had become quite noticeably louder. The fact that his voice only got louder and louder revealed that he had stopped. Now certain that he was about to round the final bush separating him from the pipsqueak, he heard Ed ask "Who are you?". This certainly could not have been referring to his brother, as Ed would know the tin can anywhere.

"Me? I'm so glad you asked that, my little friend." His heart skipping a beat from a shock he had not known for a long time, Envy's body instantly tensed, his eyes narrowing. The smooth voice was all too recognizable: a voice that disturbingly mirrored his own, only containing, for the moment, more of a sugary quality in the tone, as opposed to the venomous one he preferred.

At the words "little friend", Ed could be heard growling in his typical anger at being reminded of his size, but, instead of chuckling to himself, Envy was frowning in a dangerous way, and chanced a glance through the bush to see the scene before him.

Ed and Al were in a garden, which the bush he was hiding behind composed part of a border for. Al was clearly visible through the greenery, but all Envy could see was the blonde antenna of the Fullmetal Alchemist. Looking up to see the third member of the group he had heard, he saw what looked like himself, wearing an outfit as sugary pink as the voice that issued from their mouth. His stony expression grew completely enraged; against all possibility, the voice and the clothes confirmed it. He didn't know how that person was here, nor did he care; all that mattered was that they were here. His blood boiled; the question of wanting to act on this discovery was lost. It was more than clear that taking action was imperative.

- - - - - -

"Lust, where are we going?" Gluttony asked, sucking his thumb.

"We're finding Envy," Lust told him, sighing, "didn't we already say that?"

"That greedy bastard, taking all the fun for himself," Greed grumbled.

Snorting, Liberality retorted "Hypocrite."

"Oh, that's riiiight. I forgot that the goody-two-shoes were still here," Greed groaned, rolling his eyes in obvious annoyance.

"We were trying to ignore you unholy wretches," Diligence snarled.

"Oh, so now we're the only unholy ones? Don't forget, we have the same roots, all alchemy made," Pride smirked.

"Hey. We don't like you, you don't like us, but we all know that if Envy and Kindness meet up, everyone looses. So shut up and keep going," Patience interrupted, getting uncharacteristically impatient with both comrades and enemies alike.

"Speaking of Envy and Kindness, where do you think either of them are?" Humility asked.

"The park, it's the place Envy would go," Sloth said logically. She did not add anything about how he often talked to the trees about his problems, however; it was completely impertinent. The fact that Envy had a good chance at being in the park was, on the other hand, extremely pertinent, giving the twelve Homunculi their next target to search.

- - - - -

"I am the kindest man you will ever meet," the man said, his soft violet eyes sparkling dramatically.

"That's all well and good, but who are you?" Ed demanded again. "State your name!"

"Very well, if you insist. I am—" the Elric's pursuer began dramatically.

"KINDNESS!" came the anticlimactic roar.

Ed started. While the person before them, though he looked and sounded similar to Envy, was obviously not Envy, the voice he had just heard definitely was. Sure enough, a split second later, his violet slits emitting a homicidal air, the black-clad Homunculus skidded around one of the bushes by the entrance and changed right for the spot where they were. Envy's aim was not to jump upon one of the bushes, as Ed realized; in a flash of comprehension and common sense, he began to back away from what would otherwise be a potentially deadly spot. He had hardly taken one, however, when Envy stopped in front of him, snarling. Surprisingly, Ed was not on the business end of the snarls; the person on the bush, however, was.

"Kindness, what the hell are you doing here?!" Envy demanded.

Kindness looked down at him. His face had changed from when he was confronting the Elrics; it had become more like Envy's, with a look of overflowing hatred and rage crammed into his maliciously smirking face, nearly obliterating the sweet, friendly look that had seemed plastered there before.

"I could ask you the same, Envy," Kindness said, smiling falsely, "But it's more interesting to ask this: Why are you protecting those two, to whom I was simply talking?"

Envy stared at Kindness as though he had two heads, both of them Hohenheim. It took him a moment to understand what Kindness meant; he had not contemplated his position in the situation. In his haste to confront Kindness, he hadn't realized he'd stopped with his arms slightly outspread in a position that could easily switch to either offensive or defensive in a fight, indeed as though protecting them. While there was no way to talk himself out of that, he did have a rather reasonable explanation as to why.

"Because this pipsqueak and his tin can brother are my prey, got that?" he hissed.

"Oh really?" Kindness grinned. "So they are your prey, meaning they are yours?"

"We aren't anyone's property, got that?!" Ed interjected.

"Don't be ridiculous, human; Envy is a Homunculus, though he is only slightly better than your kind. In the law that has been laid down for us, you are inferior, and therefore if we want, you can be property."

"Who's being ridiculous?" Ed shouted.

"They're not my _property_, they're my _prey_!" Envy corrected.

"Property, prey, or otherwise, you have claimed them, making them yours; therefore, it is only natural that I must take them from you and make them mine!" Kindness cackled, a maniacal grin seeming to threaten to tear his face in two.


End file.
